True Patriot

 a person who loves and strongly supports or fights for his or her country

Thomas Jefferson

  Born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.
Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786.
Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.

Words of Wisdom from a man who lived long ago, Whom we owe our Freedoms and Country to!

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

"When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property."

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms (within his own lands or tenements

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing...."

"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." 

Never trouble another with what you can do yourself.

He also invented some of your favorite things

dumbwaiters for wine bottles
the hideaway bed
macaroni and cheese, not to mention
the pedometer
the plow moldboard of least resistance
the polygraph (not a lie detector, but a copying machine)
a revolving bookstand
the spherical sundial
an improved swivel chair

HE TAUGHT HIMSELF ARABIC FROM HIS OWN  QURAN

the contention that true patriots would be willing to do anything for their country

are you a Patriot?

Maya Angelou an American With Spirit

We will Miss You!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

People do only what they know how to do, so I have patience. I pray that people will have patience with themselves and learn more."

Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Angelou worked a number of jobs before publishing her first book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which focused on her own life, in 1969.

Nominated for a National Book Award, the tome skyrocketed Angelou to national fame -- especially given the controversial nature of several sections, which dealt with child molestation, racism, and sexuality.

"I thought that it was a mild book. There's no profanity," Angelou told AP. "It speaks about surviving, and it really doesn't make ogres of many people. I was shocked to find there were people who really wanted it banned, and I still believe people who are against the book have never read the book."

After the success of her first book, Angelous wrote the screenplay and score for the 1972 film, "Georgia, Georgia," becoming the first African-American woman to author a screenplay that was filmed. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

She would go on to write more than 30 published works, including five more memoirs and many books of poetry.

Beloved by stars, Angelou was a mentor to Oprah Winfrey and favorite of many presidents. She spoke at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton and was awarded the Presidential Medal of the Arts in 2000. In 2011, President Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"I'm learning that I have patience and that patience is a great gift," she said.

AMAZING WORDS

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

“When the people fear the government, that's tyranny; when the government fears the people, that's freedom.”


"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." 

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
BY WHO YOU ASK?
Thomas Jefferson

HE SPEAKS..............

 They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics. I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father? People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail. Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' — or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard. We cannot blame the white people any longer. – Bill Cosby